‘Leading companies are going to become cognitive companies, a new business architecture based on new technological capacities,’ declared Marta Martínez, General Manager of IBM for Spain, Portugal, Greece and Israel, at the most recent session of Matins ESADE, sponsored by Bluecap and organised in collaboration with La Vanguardia. 

‘Cognitive companies will take advantage of all their data, develop platforms to create new business models with their external ecosystem, and will take part in a continuous learning process with professionals who, supported by artificial intelligence, will provide a constant flow of improvement and innovation to all of their workflows and operations, both in the back office and in their interactions with customers,’ commented Ms. Martínez. 

‘Artificial intelligence for companies is very different from artificial intelligence for consumers,’ observed Ms. Martínez. ‘Artificial intelligence for companies has to be trained in areas that are highly specialised for each company and sector,’ she added. ‘It has to help make complex decisions in a way that is integrated with business processes. It has to be extremely secure, and it also has to be ethical, transparent and explainable.’

The General Manager of IBM for Spain, Portugal, Greece and Israel insisted that ‘artificial intelligence must not be a black box’. In other words, she explained, ‘If a solution of this sort cannot explain the data and criteria it uses to make its decisions, then it should not be used.’ 

Leading development for companies 

Ms. Martínez then discussed her own company’s efforts in this field: ‘IBM is leading the development of artificial intelligence for companies, with more than 20,000 projects already carried out and a huge push in the area of R&D.’ She added: ‘IBM has more than 8,000 artificial intelligence patents – more than any other company in the world, and 70% more than the closest competitor.’

During her presentation, Ms. Martínez also discussed some of IBM’s latest projects, including Project Debater, an initiative of IBM Research that is developing the first artificial intelligence system capable of debating humans.  ‘The artificial intelligence age is not the age of machine intelligence; it’s the age of our own intelligence amplified by technological capabilities,’ she concluded.